The International Day for Biological Diversity:Biodiversity and Agriculture 22 May 2008

United Nations Environment Programme

UNEP has established an inter-agency task team to prepare celebration of the IBD 2008 in Nairobi. Partners include the Ministries of Agriculture and Environment, the National Environmental Authority (NEMA), Kenya Agricultural Research Institute (KARI), National Museums of Kenya, ICIPE, FAO, and the CGIAR partnership in Nairobi (ICRAF, ILRI, TSBF/CIAT, Bioversity International, CIMMYT and ICRISAT).

The National Museums of Kenya, custodians of many local indigenous agricultural species, will host a celebratory event on 22 May. The Minister for Agriculture, Hon. William Ruto will be the chief guest, assisted by Ministry of Environment. The event will be attended by the Heads of the partner institutions. At the opening, a nine year old girl will recite a poem on the theme and a local youth group will perform a seven minute play on the theme. There will be displays of posters, books and flyers from the local partners and Kenya government. The invited dignitaries will plant indigenous fruit trees at the National Museums of Kenya grounds.

The United Nations Information Center (UNIC) has coordinated a series of radio interviews that will run everyday on the local radio channel (KBC) in Kiswahili for half hour from 19th to 23rd May. The interviews are on different topics from the local partners that link to the theme of IBD in a local context, with the key messages highlighted with a view to raising awareness on conservation and sustainable use of agricultural biodiversity.

UNEP has translated the CBD brochure on Biodiversity and Agriculture into Kiswahili for launch on 22 May which has been highly welcomed by local partners as it will benefit farmers and organisations in the sub-region. A short article on the IBD has been prepared for UNEP's in-house newsletter, Tid Bits.